I thought I would never sleep after the Mirror.

But exhaustion hit me like a drug.

Kael had carried me back to bed, his arm a steel band around me, his warmth anchoring me to the present. He whispered against my temple, soft reassurances I barely heard. His alpha scent, earth, smoke should have been enough to quiet my mind.

But as I drifted, the hum beneath my skin only deepened. The gold cracks in my mark pulsed faintly, glowing through the thin sheet over me.

And then the world slipped.

I ...